This was the biggest day of the young priest's life, he was finally ready to face the darkness of the world. Hopefully he could purify it, make the world just that much better. He had heard of the existence of a building known as the "Priest's Guild" where he could learn the ropes and climb of the latter of respect. This was indeed his destination, and he arrived with the sun high in the sky, birds singing and a slight draft in the air. The building was two stories high, and made in the same fashion as most buildings in those times. The sign read "Guild of The Priest: All Agents of God Welcome!" He walked into the building, the colour scheme white and shining, he walked to a desk in the front.

"Hello, I would like to sign up as a beginner, can I do that here?" He asked, beaming down on the woman brightly.

"Sure, just sign your name here," She said with an obviously fake, cheery attitude. The Priest signed his name: "Judas Smith". "Okay Judas, go through the door to the left, and you can start an introductory mission." Judas did as told.

This room was like a smaller version of the one he had just left, with a Priest standing in the middle. Said priest was about a head shorter than our hero, and was both bald and half as muscular.

"Okay, I don't want to be here, and I know you want to get started, so don't ask any questions," The priest said venomously, "Locals are complaining of a goblin infestation just to the west of the south district gate, exterminate them as quickly as possible."

Judas was very pleased, he had expected much more than a mere signature and briefing, this was unrealistically easy. He walked through the town, all of the civilians going about their normal business. Every once in a while he spotted other warriors of each variety pass by. Priests were well respected in most places, but he had never been so far into the South Distract before. He got sneers and dirty glances after he had gone far enough, like a policeman in the bad part of town. He reached the gate of the town soon enough, and headed west. This area was more rural, farms were scattered around, with both animals and crops. He talked the one of the farm owners.

"Excuse me, I've heard there is a goblin infestation in the area?" Judas directed at the man, his normally cheerful and friendly attitude at it's finest.

"Yep sir, they been coming over the hill there, but there ain't no one wanting to go check it out," The man replied. That was apparantly all he had to say on the matter, as he shut the door is Judas' face. Okay then, just over the mountain.

Just beyond the hill was a camp area, there were three tents, and a pig was roasting over the fire, seemingly being cooked by two of the green goblins. They spotted the priest and got offensive, of the seven, three had slingshots, and the other four ran at him with swords.

Judas was prepared for it, and jumped down to the campsite, knocking two of the goblins out as with his cross weapon as he did so. One of the others lashed out at him with their sword, he blocked it, then back-flipped to avoid slingshot hits. He rushed to the goblins with slingshots and furiously drove his weapon into the ground, causing a tremor to disarm all three, then he swung in a gigantic arc, knocking all three of them out. The final two goblins had decided they couldn't match up to this guy, and started to flee, but Judas was after them in a flash. He viciously drove his cross through one of them, then blocked a sword hit from the final goblin, before uppercutting him out. All the goblins being defeated they mysteriously vanished into the air in a shedding of light. That was one thing that Judas understood perfectly, when evil creatures are defeated by "warriors" such as himself, they were finally devoured by their evil acts, and sent to judgement before the god he believed in.

"And all is well in the farming district again!" He yelled out victoriously, although Judas was very well-mannered and kind, he was a bit arrogant at times. He flexed his right bicep, and did a heroic pose. "Fallen beneath the great Judas, Priest!" At this point he caught the sight of something out of the side of his eye, he could have sworn he had seen a shadow, but nothing was there.

Walking back to the Guild of Priests, he saw this shadow several more times. Sometimes, it was simply a child at play, or a black cat. Other times, it was a shadow that disappeared whenever he looked to it, once he thought it even had a face. Over time, he made it back and went straight in and through the door again, looking at the priest from earlier, this time he noticed a name tag though: "Brian"

"Hello there Brian," he exclaimed, "I have exterminated the goblins, and returned with bits of their cloth, as requested."

He looked disdainfully at Judas, "Beginner's luck, spend some time sparring with the battle master, go home after your done." He used his thumb to dictate that the path leading to the battle master was out the door behind him.

This room differed from the others, it had a gymnasium look to it, and was mostly grey and red. There were a few priest training in the background, varying from sparring matches to weight lifting and punching bag exercises.

"A newbie huh?" The women said after Judas entered and she looked over to him, "Just show me what you got, kay?" She was very slim and short compared to Judas, and also had a nametag: "Grandis"

Judas swung his weapon at her several times, all of which were easily deflected by Grandis' own cross. She then swung her own cross swiftly below Judas, sweeping him of of his feet, and onto his bottom.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk," The women scolded, "That will never do in this guild, you have to use complex techniques, plan and read your opponent." She glared at Judas for a second, "Look, when these muscles tense up," she started, nodding to the muscles in question, "That means I'm going to swing sideways, so you block it, then uppercut."

She swung in that fashion again, and Judas did as told, only to have his weapon stopped by Grandis' foot, who then pushed forward, causing Judas to fall to the ground.

"Your getting somewhere all right, but it's getting late today, time flies when your in the field doesn't it?" She inquired, "Go on home, but be here early tomorrow, we need to practice more before you can hope to fight Ozma's demons."

With that they both left, Judas ahead of Grandis, who veered in another direction. He was still thinking of his performance on his first mission. His house was just a block down from the building, and was nothing more than a ran down hut. He was happy there though, and at this point he saw that shadow again, only he caught it's maker this time around. He was tall and thin, and wore nothing but black. Rather than having his feet on the gound, he turned into a willowy smoke just above his knees and stayed as such going down.

"Hello, Judas," It said, it's voice was almost like static, "I see you're going to be fighting Ozma's minions soon enough aren't you?"

"Who are you?" Was the reply.

"I'm the you you threw away when you became a priest, and if it's not okay with you, I'll be hanging around for a long while" It replied.

"What are you talking about?" Judas asked, this was a bit freaky, but they dealt with zombies and living statues in this business so it was fine with him.

"Your old, long lost counterpart," It declared, "That little boy who sat in the corner, and all of the scary strangers who made you hide behind your mom's behind." It suddenly began to smile, but it's mouth was the only visible part of his face, as it had become very dark. "I want to see just what you do, and you won't get rid of me. A kind of spiritual vampire, who gives just as much as he takes."

"Well, whatever you are I want you away from me," He told it, a cool confidence in his voice.

"Oh, no, let's all be friends here," It chuckled a little, "The deal is this, you let me watch your interesting story unfold, and I'll sense Ozma's demons. You'll become incredible at tracking them down with my help, so what about it?"

Judas thought it over, all this strange thing wanted to do was help him out it seemed. He just felt there had to be an alternate motive though.

"Fine, I won't try to get rid of you, but don't bother me that much, okay?" He decided, as soon as it came from his mouth the strange thing vanished, but his voice sounded out once more.

"Oh, and I'm Mud J. Asoza, just call me Mud or Asoza or J. I guess, I don't really care."

"Asoza, huh?" Judas went to sleep afterwards. He had a sound and, to him at least, dreamless night. Judas would go on to establish himself as one of the most legendary priest to ever live. Primarily for his skills in hunting demons, not only because of Asoza either, his strategy and swiftness was to be reckoned with. There was even to be a time or two when he would allegedly save the world. This is how it all starts though.

Author's Note: I'm toying with the idea of making this into a series, but I'm not sure I want to. For now I'll declare it a oneshot, as I wrote it to be able to work that way.

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